Who was Georgia O'Keeffe?
Georgia O'Keeffe was an excellent American artist who lived throughout the twentieth century. In fact, she was so excellent that she is considered as one of the most important artists of the American history. Furthermore, she strongly affected art of her own time and of now. Georgia had affected art so much that some people claim that she "modernised" art in many different ways. As the most famous, and the most popular, and the most important artist of the American history, Georgia painted with such perfection that attracted (and still attracts) many people throughout the world. So here is a brief biography of Georgia O'Keeffe's life.
Early Life
In the November 15th of 1887, Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was born between two dairy famers (Francis and Ida O'Keeffe), who were residing in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin in the northern section of America. Her parents had seven children, and Georgia was the second out of them. She spent most of her childhood in the farm, being raised as a typical farm girl. But at the age of 11, she began taking art lessons as she recognized her artistic ability to draw. By the time she was 16, she had already received 5 years of private art lessons in different schools of Wisconsin and Virginia. Soon enough, she entered the Art Institute of Chicago in 1905. Then in 1907, when she and her family moved to New York City, she became a member of the Art Students League, and was taught by a very famous artist of the 19th century: William Merritt Chase! However, her lessons with Chase did not last long; in 1908, Georgia decided to move back to Chicago and work as a commercial artist there.
Middle Life
In 1912, one of Georgia's friends in Texas sent a letter to Georgia, telling her that a teaching position of drawing was open there. So from 1912 to 1914, Georgia worked as a public school art supervisor in Amarillo, Texas. After resigning her job in Amarillo, she moved back to New York City to attend Columbia Teachers College, where she took art class of Arthur Wesley Dow. Then in 1916, she was appointed as the head of the art teacher training department at West Texas State Normal College. Since she had a light schedule at that time, her job also gave her time plenty of time to paint. Then in 1916, her abstract drawings were exhibited by a famous photographer and gallery owner: Alfred Stieglitz. Alfred had always been interested in modernism and modern artists, so he showed her work to the public for the first time in his gallery 291. However, by the following year, World War One occurred, which invalidated all of Stieglitz's professions in his exhibitions. So he began using Georgia O'Keeffe as his photographic model. Since they worked together, their relationships gradually got closer and closer. Their relationships got so close to one another that they married in 1924, despite the fact that Stieglitz was 24 years older than her. And during this time, she continued to paint, making more and more brilliant abstract paintings for her husband's gallery.
Later Life
Even though O'Keeffe and Stieglitz's love was deep, their relationships got apart very often. Stieglitz loved the city life, with all its loud noises and activities, while Georgia preferred open space of the countryside, where it was all quite and peaceful. This made sense, because Stieglitz loved modernism, and Georgia loved to paint the nature. This relationship continued until 1946, when Stieglitz died. After his death, O'Keeffe decided to move to New Mexico, where there were beautiful landscapes. (She had been visiting New Mexico since the 1920s, which inspired many of her paintings.) Her house also became a new subject to paint, ranging from doors, windows, and walls. She continued to draw and paint, until few weeks before her death, on March 6th, 1986. She was nearly 100 years old, and she had managed to leave marvellous paintings that affect art forever.